Volunteer Lawyer Programs

Staffed
Legal Services Offices

Specialty Legal Aid Providers


Who Provides Civil Legal Aid?

The Alliance for Equal Justice: is a statewide network of organizations providing legal aid--information, advice and representation--to those in our community with nowhere else to turn.



Volunteer Lawyer Programs

 Private attorneys volunteer to support the efforts of full-time legal aid attorneys in meeting the civil legal needs of low-income residents. Private attorneys give more than 50,000 hours of volunteer legal aid worth more than $7 million each year. There are over twenty Volunteer Lawyer Programs throughout Washington State, many organized through local bar associations.

Volunteers provide a range of services from advice at legal clinics to full representation of a client in court. Types of cases handled by volunteer attorneys include housing, protection of financial resources, consumer protection and family law. Volunteer Lawyer Programs are an essential part of the Alliance for Equal Justice's public-private partnership. Some of these programs are King County Bar Association community legal services, Yakima County Volunteer Attorney Services, Snohomish County Legal Services, Spokane Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program, Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association and Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services.

Staffed Legal Aid Services Offices

Washington’s statewide staffed legal services provider is the Northwest Justice Project (NJP), which is the hub of the statewide legal aid delivery system, operating from several offices throughout the state and overseeing the CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral) toll free intake and referral hotline, which serves as a critical point of access for clients throughout the state to obtain free legal help, including advice, brief legal service, and, where available, a referral for further representation. In addition, CLEAR maintains an extensive library of legal resources and self-help materials of Washington.

Each year, NJP assists more than 18,000 people in need of critical legal assistance.

Learn more about NJP at www.nwjustice.org


Specialty Legal Aid Providers

The Alliance for Equal Justice also includes a number of specialty legal aid providers with offices throughout the state: Columbia Legal Services, the Unemployment Law Project, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, domestic violence advocacy programs, Solid Ground and others. These specialty providers enhance the service capabilities of the Alliance by providing quality representation to specific low-income populations or representation for specific types of legal problems that low-income people face.